I was thinking of putting a wall up so it would split the shop up into a 40X40 Mecahnical area and a 20X40 wood shop area with a sliding door on the separation wall to maintain the drive through feature.

Has anyone tried this? That way I can do the wood stuff in the winter and heat a smaller area.

I too am just dreaming about what I would like to build, and it has a separete area for mechanical / storage and wood working. good idea. The wall / doors would have to be pretty tall to separate in the center along the ridgepole line, but thats not much after the garage is built.

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Jim StewartEl Cajon, Ca. (San Diego area)

Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

How about two areas 20x60 each?60 feet will give you 10 feet on each end of the bus, so you can have a workbench up front and still close the door and work on the bus.If you have a 45 footer, keep 10 feet up front for the same work area, and only 5 feet in the rear,so you can still close the door with the bus inside. Wish I had my own too.

Agree with Sammy - a 20X60 would be better. 40 ft deep is not long enough for anything but a 35 ft or shorter coach.

My shop is 25X50 and works out great (40 ft 05 Eagle). Down one wall are 30 inch shelves 9 ft tall and a 12 ft work bench in the middle of that wall. The space between the shelves and coach is my open work area that has a 3X7 ft steel metal topped table on rollers. Most very thing in my shop is on rollers so it can be moved. On the opposite wall are 12 inch shelves for misc items and steel. It has 16 ft high walls, one 14 ft overhead door and three walk in doors.

Skip, My shop is not that big. Wish is was. But I have a second floor for my wood shop, it is over a couple car bays. Works well for me but wish it was bigger. I had to move the wall back to get my bus in, but I built it with that in mind. 1 bay for the bus, 1 for repair, and 2 for autos. You need more than 40 for your bus. I have 40 for my 5c and it works well. Tom Y

I'm planning on building a 40x50 shop with a wall down the middle. One half of course for the bus and the other half split between passenger cars and a wood shop area. I would like to go bigger, but I would have to go much further out to a city or county that will allow more than 2,000 square feet.

I would like to find an existing home with the right size shop, but not likely. Existing homes are cheaper than building right now.

Len, Thanks for the offer but this northern mountain boy wouldn't do well in the heat.

Brian, We were looking at 2 or three places and the one we put an offer on already has a shop. From my perspective the lived in places seem to have better quality and all the problems of a new build have been resolved (hopefully). The shop isn't exactly what I was looking for but it is way better than my current 40X60 Quonset. (lot of lost usable space on the sides). I like how you are going to split up the usage. Heating is becoming a major concern and pocket book gouge.

A lot of existing homes I've looked at are real dumps, but I've been looking at some pretty low end places. The problems with existing homes is many could use new kitchens, windows, and siding amongst other things. My existing home was custom built for me in 2001 and is nicer than most of the existing homes in the area. The bid was 10% more than others, but the builder did a great job. I will agree that most tract homes are junk. Some of the model homes I looked at were scary and models are supposed to get extra attention.

New homes use a lot less energy than existing homes in most cases. My current home with over 2,000 square feet costs less than $1,800 a year for heat, cooling, and electric and I'm in Minnesota. The average home locally with natural gas costs about $1,700 a year just for heat.

I currently have my eye on a house built in 1966 with 7 acres. It has a barn, but the yard is full of junk the previous owner left behind when the place was foreclosured. There is even an old school bus back there. The back yard has a seperate driveway which would make adding a bus shop easier. I haven't been in the house, but the outside is really bad. It certainly needs exterior work and I bet inside is no better.

Can't disagree at all but after converting a bus; house remodeling should be a piece of cake (done 2 houses and working on one bus the houses were easier)

DON'T get a place with feul oil (#1 diesel) heat....the ULSD diesel I now am using to heat the house only lasts 75% as long as the old stuff. Used to be able to make 100 gal last a month now it is 3 weeks w/ the wood stove running 12 hrs a day. this morning at -7 F both wood stove and furnace are running. At $2.98 (non tax) a gallon it gets expensive fast.

It is very rare to find anyone using fuel oil here in Minnesota. I really would like to use geothermal for my next house.

I would like to stay away from a house remodeling project because I just spent a year finishing off unfinished space in my current house. The biggest issue for me with home remodeling is not having someone to help hold and lift things. I have hired a high scholl kid in the past, but it helps if they have had at least minimal exposure to tools and such. A lot of high school kids don't seem to know which end of the hammer is which.

Also, if I spend my summer remodeling a house I won't have time to work on my bus! I sure would gain a lot of equity by remodeling my onw house though.

Just showing my age I guess... High school in Staples, J high in Bemidji On the farm what ever heated the shop was the same that heated the house.But then I had friends that were still on the outhouse method.

Heat lamps do not work that well in an outhouse at 28 below! but then again used to go camping in 10 below too.

Even before your post I had been giving a lot of thought to my bus barn/shop. A really large expense, at least here is concrete. The shop has to have a concrete floor at 20X20. The car stalls need only have a 10X10 slab. The bus would have a pit surrounded by a pad 20X20. The rest of the floor would be highly compacted gravel. So out of 2,000 sq ft I would need only 900 sq ft of concrete floor. That would reduce the cost a lot around here. What are your thoughts? I am interested in your opinion.

John

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